We're good at innovation but we must keep ourselves ahead of the game

So, are we heading for a triple-dip recession, as the National Institute of
Economic and Social Research suggested earlier this week? Or is Britain's
economy on the bounce, as the Bank of England's Governor believes?

We discovered DNA sequencing, penicillin, radar and, more recently, the Higgs boson and eye gene therapy but, if we are to replicate these scientific breakthroughs, we need fresh generations of engineers and scientists.Photo: CERN

Take a moment away from such weighty – not to say confusing – matters and indulge yourself. Spend a little time thinking about the ingenuity of British inventors and engineers and the ways in which they have transformed our lives.

The Great British Innovation Vote, launched by Prof Stephen Hawking and developed by the Science Museum, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society among others, will identify the most important innovation in science and technology from the past 100 years and the one that is most likely to shape the future.

Of course, the competition is just a bit of fun but it highlights a serious issue: how do we give a higher profile to engineering and science?

We have a great heritage but Britain needs to become a more fertile land for innovation, for manufacturing and for engineering, so that when economic recovery comes, the UK's growth potential can be put on a firm footing.

Our children are not being encouraged in either sufficient numbers or at a young enough age to consider designing and making things for a living.

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We discovered DNA sequencing, penicillin, radar and, more recently, the Higgs boson and eye gene therapy but, if we are to replicate these scientific breakthroughs, we need fresh generations of engineers and scientists.

There seems to be a growing recognition that government and industry must work together to allow innovation to flourish, whether by incentivising business or adapting the curriculum.

Industry will have to do its bit to fund schemes to raise the profile of engineering and remind aspiring students of the rewards on offer as well as the opportunities.

The Great British Innovation Vote is a perfect opportunity to remind ourselves that we are good at innovation. The challenge now will be to ensure that we don't get left behind in a world where living on past glories is simply not an option.

Entrepreneurs need more than just hope

John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce did not mince his words yesterday. The political class were a bunch of "amateurs", who have "generally never run anything", he said at the annual conference.

His words must have resonated with the bosses of FirstGroup, awarded the West Coast Main Line franchise, only to have it withdrawn after a successful legal challenge by Virgin Trains. The fiasco cost the taxpayer £50m, according to the Public Accounts Committee, which said the franchise process had been "littered with errors" and suffered from a lack of leadership. They will have resonated too with bosses at the four rail companies, who lost £40m when the Government scrapped a bid for the Great Western rail franchise, and have now begun a legal action to recover their costs.

His words will have been cheered to the rafters by every entrepeneur who has risked their home to set up a business and want to hear an unequivocal message from ministers that wealth creation should be celebrated and risk rewarded.

The Chancellor might retort that he has cut corporation tax from 28pc to 21pc, sorted out the controlled foreign companies regime, given small business two years' tax relief on capital investment, introduced a patent box, and lowered the top rate of income tax from 50pc to 45pc.

And, while loose monetary policy has helped push up share prices, George Osborne would argue that business has not invested to the extent he had expected, choosing instead to reward shareholders with record dividends.

Whatever the merits of that debate, we can all agree that, if the only economic strategy is "hope", as Mr Longworth suggests, we are doomed. More supply side reforms, such as a proper "energy security policy", less obstructive planning rules and a "massive" infrastructure programme are all on his wishlist for next week's Budget.

Apple's rattled by latest Samsung offering

The Samsung Galaxy S4, released in New York last night, will almost certainly become one of 2013's top-selling smartphones, perhaps the best-selling of all. And it will begin to chalk up those sales months before rival Apple has a new iPhone on the market.

It is perhaps no surprise then that Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing chief, chose shortly before the Galaxy release to highlight a key weakness of the Android operating system behind the Samsung device. "With their own data, only 16pc of Android users are on a year-old version of the operating system," he said. "More than 50pc are still on software that is two years old. A really big difference."

Apple's usual tactic for drawing attention away from a rival launch is to announce an update to one of its own products or to issue invites to a future event, thereby getting news coverage and kicking off a flood of speculation. This time, Apple has gone on the attack.

Schiller's comments show that Apple is rattled and, up against Samsung's vast marketing budget, the iPhone maker is not taking the S4 lightly. His comments could be seen as a victory for Samsung in forcing a competitor to react.

However, it's also fair to say that he has identified a genuine problem. The Galaxy S4, a cutting edge smartphone, could hit the market running a year-old version of Android and upgrade might not come quickly. Customers with other handsets have found themselves forced to wait months as manufacturers and mobile service providers drag their heels on updates.

This fragmentation problem is a challenge for manufacturers and developers alike. To an extent, iOS developers have a similar problem in having to support iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S and 5, as well as three different iPads, if the app is universal. However, the problem is clearly worse on Android.

Expect to see Apple pursue this line of attack further as the launch of the next iPhone approaches.